Clinical and Pathological Aspects of Arterial Thrombosis and Thromboembolism

Although over one hundred years have elapsed since the succinct mid-19th century descriptions of thrombosis and thrombogenesis were published (1–5), widespread recognition of the clinical importance of thrombosis and thromboembolism in a variety of disease states is largely a phenomenon of the 20th century. It was, for example, not until early in this century that the first authoritative clinical descriptions of coronary thrombosis and myocardial infarction were provided (6, 7), even though William Herberden had, with meticulous accuracy described the features of angina pectoris in 1772 (8), and Hammer in 1878 (9) had correctly diagnosed coronary thrombosis during life.